Sorry for the recent gap in this blog, but I’ve been in hospital (nothing serious), and on a visit to England with Kajsa to see my children and grandchildren. We elected to travel by train and boat to help save the climate; but a night in an ancient sleeper carriage on a train to Hamburg resolved me never to do it again. Flying would have been quicker, cleaner, and a lot cheaper.

However, the boat from Rotterdam to Hull (again, we slept on it) was pretty good, with all those Asians whom P&O had controversially recruited to replace the dearer British crew a couple of years ago friendly and helpful. Being on the ’high seas’, you see, means that P&O don’t need to comply with British employment law. – It’s difficult sometimes to adhere to one’s socialist and environmental principles.

On the way back Kajsa bought a beautifully produced German booklet on Imperialismus, which features a full-page portrait of my early academic bread and butter: the ‘Critic of Empire’ JA Hobson; but without mentioning my path-breaking 1968 book on him. Ah well!

Serious blogging will resume, I hope, soon. I’ve plenty to write about; including the astonishing report in today’s Dagens Nyheter that the favourite to become the Swedish football team’s next national manager is the recently sacked manager of West Ham United. He’s managed before in Sweden, and far more successfully than he did with us. Perhaps the Swedish air suits him; as it does me.